Kuromukuro - 21,5 - Escape from Kurobe
by carlos olivera
Summary: Settled during the same events of episode 22. When Efy Dolgh conquers the research facility, for the German Soldier Klein Freeman and the Irish scientist Alyx O'Hara, still trapped inside the building, will be the beginning of a dramatic run against time to reach safety. But first, they'll need to stop the enemy's attempt to destroy the Earth's main defences and win the war.
1. Chapter 1

**_Notes._**

 _Hi to everyone._

 _As you have red in the notes, this is a short fanfic (we could call it a one-shot, but for a matter of opportunity I will publish it divided in 4 parts, a Prologue and 3 Sections) about Kuromukuro. When I saw episode 21, something in my mind made me think about a side-story of a couple of survivors which try to escape alive from a military base now turned into a hell of aliens and possessed humans (Half-Life style, YEAH!^^)._

 _I hope you'll enjoy it._

 _See you soon with the first part!^_^_

 _Cj Spencer_

* * *

When Captain Klein Freeman reached the UN research facility in Kurobe he was prepared to face any sort of situation, but nothing in the world was comparable to the chaotic, unthinkable confusion he found when he came down from the coach in front of the main entrance.

As a member of the EU United Army he had been sent to Japan to give his personal contribution to the protection of the implant, now that the war against Efy Dolgh was finally beginning to show some progresses.

«Captain Klein Freeman, from Bundeswehr 3rd Spezialkräfte of the Eurocorps!» he introduced himself to the first officer he managed to talk with among all the soldiers and scientists that were running everywhere in that moment. «I've been assigned to this base as supporting military force.»

«Sorry Captain, this is not the right moment.» cut the officer short

«I see it. What's happened exactly?»

«The Black Relic is escaped, and the Chief Director has been put under arrest for mutiny.»

«What!? Mutiny!? They told me this was a perfectly efficient plant!»

«At the moment we're occupied to take into custody all of the Chief's followers. If you want to have some more information, go to Major Graham. He's in the Main Room.»

«Of course I do. Thank you, sir.»

Klein then reached the main entrance and crossed the door, but inside there was the same confusion of the outside, not to mention the arrests that were taking place directly in front of him.

«And I thought I had seen any sort of things in my soldier's life.»

While he was still searching for the main room on the third floor of the base, someone hit him on the back while running.

«Look where you go, you idiot!» he protested

«Sorry Sir, my fault!» answered a female, joyful voice.

Hearing that, the Captain remained stunned, and even before note the pale hair, the minute appearance and the dark, Mediterranean skin, he immediately recognized the little, energetic young soldier which was run away toward the end of the corridor.

«Rita!?»

The soldier stopped, turning to him.

«Klein!?».

Then, after a brief moment of disbelief, they both ran the one toward the other, with the young soldier which directly jumped on the Captain's shoulders, completely forgetting the difference in grades.

«Klein, it's really you!» she cheerfully said.

«And you're the same as always.» he replied with no resentment while she was hugging him in happiness

«What the hell are you doing here!? I thought you were in Ramstein!»

«In fact. I've been sent here by the high command as part of a Eurocorps' division. The other ones will arrive by next week.»

«Yes, the reinforcements from the EU. I never thought you was among them.»

«And you? Why are you here? Life in Spain was not so much fun for a crazy hacker like you?»

«I joined to the UN's international force last year. They needed a pro technician for the informatics systems, so I asked to be sent here. You know me, I cannot stay in a single place for too long.»

«Yes, I know it. And I know that this is an incredibly dangerous place for someone which never even learned how to shoot properly.»

«What, are you really still thinking about that thing!? I was just a newbie, and you were a pro-soldier already. That's not been a fair match.»

«You've been the one to propose me that challenge. And you lost. I'm still waiting for that drink you owe me.»

«Well.» she maliciously winked. «Since we'll work together from now on, I suppose I'll have the opportunity to repay my debt soon.»

In that moment Klein managed to stop a sudden yawn, and judging by his eyes Rita noted a clear sense of drowsiness.

«Still problems with the jet lag?»

«This goddamn time zone. I'll never get used. It's almost forty-eight hours since I slept.»

«Do you have a place to stay?»

«Not yet. I just arrived from Tokyo.»

«If you want, you can rest in the guest room. Given the situation, it seems I'll not use it for a bit. It's completely soundproof and alarm-proof, with the obvious exception of the first-class alarms, so all this mess will not be a problem for your sleep.»

«Are you crazy? I must report to Major Graham immediately, not to mention that you're in full alert for this supposed mutiny. There's no time to rest.»

«At the moment, there's not much we can do. The Black Relic already left the planet, and all of Director Shirahane's followers have been already put under arrest. Plus this, I fear that at the moment the Major has more than enough to do to give you a proper welcome.»

Then Rita took her guest room's access key from the uniform's pocket and gave it to Klein.

«Trust me, this is the best choice. Obviously there will be need for you very soon, and I think that the Major too will be really happy to have a more than ready officer at his orders instead of a sleepy, exhausted German which can barely stay awake.»

Klein couldn't do nothing but admit that she was right about the fact he was terrible sleepy, and since there was no apparent hope to see Major Graham soon maybe to be in perfect shape for when he would has finally been able to meet him was not a bad idea.

«It will be better for you if you call me by time» he replied taking the key and heading to the elevators «Or your debt, instead of one, will be of one-hundred drinks.»

«Don't worry, sweetie.»

«And don't call me sweetie.»

«Oh, sorry. Then, keine sorge, schätzchen.»

«You, little…»

* * *

Alyx was not a newbie in the Kurobe's Research Center, but surely she wasn't even a high responsible.

As a respectable, still young professor with a university degree in cyber-technologies her work was to provide studies and researches inheriting the alien technology with the final purpose to find new and better weapons against Efy Dolgh, but the truth was that she was nothing more of a simple assistant.

Professor Norstein, professor Kowalczyk's second in command and her direct supervisor, was a brilliant researcher, but his head was always in the clouds, and his researches were the strangest ones among the entire examination division.

Alyx was initially so happy when they told her she had been accepted to work to the Black Relic and alien technology, but after months spent to work as the most useless rubber-stamping her pride was strongly suggesting her that was time to say enough.

That day was expecting to be like all the other previous ones, an anonymous day of work in a little laboratory close to the hangars in search of the most stupidest things; obviously, Alyx couldn't image what that day was about to become.

«Interesting.» professor Norstein suddenly said.

The room's lights made its bald hair shine like a glass sphere, and for this his nickname among the base's researchers was Umibozu; despite this, and his classical carelessness, he was also a brilliant scientist, so somehow Alyx had a great respect for him.

«What's, professor?»

In that moment Norstein was more than occupied to carefully observe something on his microscope, then when Alyx approached he moved to let her watch.

«Look at this.»

She obeyed. At the center of the slide, apparently off, there was a tiny, insect-resembling machine, with four legs and a red circuit similar to a jewel for body.

«Is this that thing you spoke me the other day, professor?»

«Precisely.» he replied sitting at his computer «We keep find them inside the cactus units we defeat. Initially I thought they were some sort of maintainers to ensure the robots' functions, but we couldn't find a single data in support of this theory.»

«And then? What could it be?»

«I can't say it precisely yet. But when I searched inside its database in search for more informations, I found out something that could help us to find it out.»

Then professor Norstein opened a graphic, showing it to her assistant.

«What does it seem to you my dear?»

«It seems almost… an electroencephalogram.»

«Yes, but not yes. This is a completely artificial impulse which mimics a human cerebral impulse. Initially I thought it could be an alien attempt to study our structure, but when I tried to overlap it to a normal cerebral impulse…»

Norsein replied the experiment, using his previously extracted electroencephalogram and making him resound with the artificial one. The result was that both the impulses merged creating a third one, completely new.

«They fused together.»

«Not exactly. By my calculations, the impulse generated by the Efy Dolgh's creature has interfaced itself with my own, altering it and pursuing it to modify its structure.

Something similar to the months' stratagem to distort the bats' radar to avoid being eaten.»

«But what sort of utility could have something like this?»

«I don't know. But I'm worry for the use they could decide to do of it. We should inform Major Graham as fast as possible.»

Unfortunately, right on that moment, the alarm resounded in the entire base.

«Alarm!» both of them heard on the speakers. «Massive attack force approaching! Repeat! Massive attack force approaching! All non-combatant must reach the refuges as fast as possible! Repeat! All non-combatant must reach the refuges as fast as possible!»

«Hell, again.» mourned the professor. «It seems that we'll be forced to wait for our report to the Major.»

«Professor, we must hurry!» said Alyx

«Just a moment! First I want to put these data on safe!»

Both of them were too much bury to note that the apparently dead creature on the microscope was now shining a pulsing light.

* * *

The guest room was so well protected from any sound coming from the outside that Klein managed to sleep in complete quiet for an indefinite period of time.

However, the awaking proved to be more than traumatic the moment the first-class alarm made him jump out from the bed in fear.

«All personnel! This is an order from Major Graham! Evacuation! Repeat! Evacuation! Evacuate Kurobe at once! All personnel reach the extraction point immediately! This is not an exercise!»

«What!? Evacuation!?»

As fast as possible Klein recovered his uniform and left the room, but the things he found the moment he reached the panoramic windows could not be described.

Both the inside and the outside of the base were devastated, and the outside in particular was full of armored enemies beyond belief, while on the other side there was not a single trace of human forces, with the sole exception for the already defeated ones.

Plus this, directly over the building, Klein noted a massive, menacing alien ship floating into the sky above the base, and despite having never seen one of them before he immediately recognized it as an Efy Dolgh mothership.

«Shit. This is going to become the worse day in my life.»

While he was still in searching for answers, the young officer noted an UN soldier not too far from him: he was strange, almost absent, and was walking along the corridor in the most apathetic and lame manner.

«Report, soldier!» he said reaching him. «What's the situation? Where are our forces? Have the GAUS been deployed yet?»

That one stopped, but when finally turned toward him Klein remained stuck in astonishment: his eyes were strange, almost creepy, with no natural light but covered in a pale tone.

«Soldier…»

«To Efy Dolgh's peace and prosperity.» he said in an emotionless, robotic voice.

Then, with no apparent reason, he took his mp-5 and begun to shoot against Klein, which however proved to being strong and cautious enough to avoid the first hail of bullets hiding behind a big flowerpot.

«Soldier, have you lost your mind?» he tried to say, but that one continued to shoot without listening.

Klein tried to avoid fight as much as possible, but since that crazy seemed more than determined to kill him at the end the officer had no other choice than properly answer; when the enemy's loader finally end, he quickly reached him, easily avoiding his punch, then he hit him with a single, powerful blow behind the neck which sent the soldier to dreamland.

The situation however was still dramatic. There was no other sign of human presence in that section of the building, and when Klein tried to reach the closest elevator he quickly noted that the entire base was now full of enemies; among them there were even many other humans, all of them with those pale eyes and the absent, mindless attitude.

«What the hell is happening here?»


	2. Chapter 2

_**Notes.**_

 _ **Hi to everyone.**_

 _ **Thanks to all the ones that have read this story. I warn you that i've decided to split it in 4 parts instead of 3, so there will be two more chapters.**_

 _ **See you soon!^_^**_

 _ **Cj Spencer**_

* * *

Immediately Klein tried to reach the closest elevator and then the escape route, but he was able to walk only a few meters before find out that the base was decisively compromised, and that the enemy had already complete control of the entire plant thanks to his robotic units and, more than anything, the same personnel, now turned into a terrifying army of silent, emotionless servants.

To make matters worse, all around him had signs of the cactus units' passage, and the building itself had been badly damaged by the battle, with broken windows, collapsed walls and destroyed doors everywhere.

Fortunately there was still electricity, but despite this, with all these hostiles, it was probably just a matter of time before being found.

"Shit" he thought finding out that the hall where the elevators were located was already been occupied by the enemies. "That was the sole escape route."

He managed to hide behind an archive along a corridor, but now there was need for a new escape route; and when, from a window, he noted a group of bus, cars and other vehicles leave the main square and disappear inside the tunnel which connected the facility with the other side of the mountain a terrible sensation emerged in his mind: he was alone.

Behind the enemy lines.

That was not the first time for him, but surely he never found himself in the situation of being trapped in a giant, unknown abandoned building surrounded by aliens and mad humans.

The first thing was to establish a contact with the outside, so he immediately returned toward the hall where all had begun. The soldier he faced was still here unconscious, then quickly grabbed him and came back into the guest room, where he took his MP5 with bayonet, the gun and the radio before tie him with a ripped sheet.

Written on a little plate behind the radio there was the facility's code, and even the ones of all the other plants and centers in that entire region. There were no guarantees that someone would answer to his call, neither that this one could be a friendly voice, but at the moment it was the sole option.

«Seek you! Seek you! This is KD452!» he said. «Is anyone listening?»

He needed to try a couple of frequencies, but finally someone answered: and without any doubt it was a human voice.

«We hear you, KD452! This is MTS554!»

MTS: in other words, the Mount Tate's School.

«Identify yourself.»

«Captain Klein Freeman, from Bundeswehr 3rd Spezialkräfte of the Eurocorps, assigned to the Kurobe Dam's research facility. ID 43560134 I'm speaking you from the Kurobe Dam's research facility.»

The operator on the other side remained silent for a moment, probably waiting for confirmations, then he finally answered.

«Identification confirmed. Speak freely, Captain.»

«The base is lost. Repeat, the base is lost. No sign of other survivors. Hostiles everywhere. At the moment I'm inside the third floor's guest room. Both the main entrance and the emergency exit are compromised. I need an escape route as fast as possible.»

The operator silenced once again for a brief moment in search for orders.

While he was waiting for the answer, Klein suddenly felt a menacing noise right out of the door, and since that was the sole entrance he felt hopelessly trapped, desperately searching all around for a solution.

Some moments later the sliding door opened, and a cactus unit entered into the room: the lights were off, and there was no apparent sign of activity.

It slowly advanced, while the door which closed behind him, looking both right and left in search for eventual menaces. Seeing that all was apparently quiet it was about to leave, when a sudden sound came from a closed wardrobe.

«KD452, do you hear me? This is MTS554. KD452, please answer.»

The robot immediately stopped, and changing its visual from the usual one to the thermic one, it managed to note a clear heat source inside the cabin. It could simply destroy it, but instead he moved toward the wardrobe, with one of its swords ready to attack an eventual menace, then, after a brief moment, it grabbed the handle and quickly opened it, finding itself in front of a tied and gagged soldier, with an active radio at his side

Fortunately the cactus didn't have thought to watch over his head, or in this case he would have seen a second heat source right behind a sheet of the roof.

Klein waited till the last moment, then he jumped over the enemy's body, grabbing it firmly and trying immediately to pierce his metallic body with the bayonet. He managed to break a couple of tubes, but this proved to not be enough to stop that thing, which shaking and wriggling finally managed to throw him away. The young soldier was able to land harmless, and then the cactus faced him with his swords.

As a soldier with a great experience in close fighting Klein was well aware to have less than one hope to prevail, but strangely the cactus choose to follow a cautious approach to the fight, as if it was trying to take him alive instead of simply reclaim his life. Using the knife and avoiding the enemy assaults Klein managed to hurt the enemy a couple of other times, but when he tried to attack the neck, which he knew it was their sole weak spot, the cactus succeeded to stop him, and after having able to disarm the Captain it finally managed to capture him.

Klein found himself face to face with the robot, unable to move, and at that point the cactus tried to lift up his right hand, finding out however that it was almost completely paralyzed due to the damages it received.

While the enemy was apparently still trying to reach the Captain's face with its hand Klaus desperately searched right and left for a solution, and when he saw the giant wardrobe, the same one with the soldier still inside, handy at his left, he had no hesitations. Almost breaking a couple of bones he managed to free an arm, and caught the box's angle he pulled with all of his force, overturning it right against the enemy.

The cactus was forced to let him go to protect itself, but was overwhelmed in any case and fell to the ground; and at that point Klein recovered the knife, jumped over the robot and stabbed it right on the neck, and that monster finally died.

While the Captain was still trying to catch some breath he heard the radio crackle once again.

«KD452, do you hear me? This is MTS554. KD452, please answer.»

He rapidly recovered it.

«I'm here, MTS554. I had… something to do.»

«There's a service corridor which passes under the lake» said again the operator «Gate 4-A in the Sixth underground level's south-east section. It will take you on the other side of the dam, far from the enemy's territory. We moved our HQ in the International School.»

«I must suggest a massive bombing of the building. I don't know what they're trying to do, but the entire enemy forces seem to have taken place on this location.»

«It's impossible to do it, KD452. The enemy has created some sort of magnetic camp all around the region. At the moment, we're completely isolated from the rest of the world.»

Klein sighed: it would have been too much easy.

«Received, MTS554. I'll reach the escape route as fast as possible.»

«We're sending you a map of the complex.»

Indeed, the virtual map arrived as a message on Klein's smartphone in less than a minute, a precious gift for which he thanked the operator.

«One more thing, KD452. We don't know the reason yet, but it seems that at the present all the personnel captured by the enemy have become hostile. If necessary, the use of brute force is authorized. Repeat, the use of brute force is authorized.»

«Received, MTS554. I'll call you again when I'll be out of the enemy territory. Freeman, out.»

The communication ceased, and Klein prepared himself for the longest journey of his life.

«Sorry, soldier.» he said putting the brainwashed soldier inside a new wardrobe. «They'll probably find you soon, but for now just stay here.»

At that point, after having recovered the rifle and the radio, he cautiously approached the door, furtively looking outside: the corridor was clear.

«What a nice day.» he said before leave the room.

* * *

Thanks to the map Klein was able to take a backstairs and reach the first underground level, but at that point he was forced to leave it since there was a sentinel in patrol on the lower side.

Orders was that he was allowed to kill if necessary, but it was more than clear that those poor guys were not aware of what they were doing, so he wanted to do everything possible to avoid a battle with them, even at the cost to postpone his run to safety.

The first underground level was occupied for the bigger part by laboratories, research rooms and many other centers designated to study the alien technology, and contrarily to the surface there were much less possessed humans walking around: or that level was not interesting for Efy Dolgh, Klein thought, or the undergrounds had been evacuated on time to avoid losses among the personnel.

The Captain succeeded in avoid of being seen by the aliens, but a certain point, while he was running along an empty corridor toward the closest route for the third level, a scream echoed all around.

«Help!» shouted a female voice. «Please, someone help me!»

Whoever it was it clearly seemed a human voice: probably there was someone still sane apart him in that goddam building, so Klein, after a brief moment of hesitation, headed to the call's direction.

Suddenly, around the corner, the Captain met a young, red-haired female scientist which was desperately trying to escape to one of those brainwashed humans, another scientist apparently, which was threatening her wielding with a big crowbar. She was armed with a SPAS-12 shotgun, but despite the menace over he she seemed to have no intentions to use it.

«Please, professor!» she desperately kept saying. «Please, wake up! It's me, Alyx!»

That one didn't answer, and with no hesitation tried to hit her; she somehow managed to avoid the attack, but doing so she dramatically lost balance, finding herself sat to the ground and with the back pushed against the wall, completely escapeless.

The professor was about to hit her once again, when Klein attacked him trying to take him away the crowbar. Unfortunately, and despite his considerably age, that one was able to free himself, violently hitting the Captain on a side and pushing him away, before divert once his attention against Alyx once again.

«Power and Peace to Efy Dolgh…»

Then, he raised the crowbar, ready to give the final blow to an helpless Alyx, but at the last moment an hail of bullets hit him directly behind his chest, leaving him dead on the ground before Alyx's astonished and terrified eyes.

While the young doctor was still unable to understand what had happened in front of her, Klein approached the dead enemy and slightly kicked him, proving he was inevitably dead.

«Are you ok?»

Seeing that men kick the doctor's body once again to confirm his death, Alyx's rage dramatically exploded in front of him.

«What have you done!? He was my teacher!»

«He tried to kill you.» replied an astonishingly calm Klein

«He was not aware of what he was doing!»

«Would you have preferred to be killed?»

Then, hearing those words, the young scientist remained speechless, unable to answer.

«In these cases, you kill or you're killed. There's not a second option.» said Klein before taking up the radio once again. «Do you hear me, MTS554? I found a second survivor.» but no one answered. «MTS554, can you hear me? This is KD452.»

«It's useless.» Alyx replied waking up from the field. «We're too much underground because a signal can pass.»

«Great. So we're officially isolated.»

«By the way, who are you? I've never seen you before.»

«Captain Klein Freeman, from Germany. This is my first day of service here on Kurobe. Not bad, uh? And you?»

«Doctor Alyx O'Hara, Research Division. Why are you still here? The evacuation order has been called hours ago.»

«I could make you the same request.»

«When the order arrived, professor Norstein wanted to come back to the laboratory to recover as more data as possible, so I returned to help him. Then, suddenly, he went mad, and begun to attack me with no reason.»

«Same for me. It seems that all other humans inside the base are now under Efy Dolgh's influence.»

«And if we don't pay attention, we could face the same fate.»

«Precisely, for this I suggest to leave this goddam place immediately.»

In that moment, a little, tiny metallic thing came out from professor Norstein's ear, starting to walk on the ground toward the two young boys.

«Look out!» Klein said, and he immediately raised his feet to stomp him

«No, wait!» Alyx replied, and before he could do it she took a test tube from her coat's pocket, entrapping that little thing in its inside.

«What are you doing?»

«We were studying these things right before all this mess happened. So the professor was right. They're really brainwashing devices.»

«And so?»

Alyx reflected for a moment, then she run away in the opposite direction at the exit.

«Where are you going?»

«Follow me!»

* * *

By hook or by crook, Klein was forced to follow Alyx till her laboratory, where she immediately put the Efy Dolgh's device inside a little box, then he begun to work at the closest computer completely ignoring the Captain's exhortations to leave as fast as possible.

«Are you crazy? There's no time for your homework!»

«The base is probably full of these creatures. We'll be lucky to remain sane till now, but we could be infected in any moment.» then she malignantly looked him. «And it would be unpleasant to be forced to shoot you.»

«And so?»

«Professor said that these creatures emit a particular magnetic camp. If I can replicate that camp and put it all around of us, then maybe we could deceive the enemy's robots making them believe that we too are possessed.»

«Not bad. So we could be able to walk along the base safe. Can you do it for real?»

«It's what I'm trying to find out. However, we must be prepared to any sort of things, and I doubt you would be able to face the cactus units with a toy rifle and a cheese knife.»

«Don't underestimate me. I didn't survive till now just for my pretty face. And just so you know, with this cheese knife I've been able to kill one of these things.»

«But I suppose you do not mind having some extra equipment, right?»

Then Alys put her ID card into a reader, and immediately a secret door opened on the room's wall, revealing in inside some sort of black combat suit worn by a metal mannequin. It was similar to the usual suits used by the GAUS's drivers, but it was at a sight incredibly more thick, and provided with some iron shields, electronic devices and many other things.

«I introduce you the Lambda Suit.» she proudly said. «Our latest prototype. Created based on the combat suits worn by enemy pilots. Two times more resistant than the GAUS suits. It's completely bulletproof and knife proof. It strongly implements both the user's physic and combat abilities. And, last but not last, it has a revolutionary basic life supports which protects from even the most deadly injuries. It's a project of mine.»

«Really. Then I think I should worry.»

«You're not fun. And see it as an honor to be the first one to try it. So put it and let me work.»

So, while Klein was changing, Alyx came back to her work.

«O'Hara, you said.» the soldier said from the changing room. «So are you… Irish?»

«Northern Irish, please! Don't compare me to those St. Patricians!»

«Oh, a proud citizen of the glorious UK, then.»

«Obviously.»

«If I can, I think you're not a very smart people. In a moment when the entire world begs for unity in the name of a war we're desperately trying to win, you've decisively chosen the worst time to follow your national selfishness. Oh, sorry, I mean your national pride.»

«Oh, it seems we have an Europeist here, am I wrong?» she replied with the same sarcastic tone. «Then let me say this. Europe has been one of the first places to face the Efy Dolgh's invasion. And despite all of your efforts, you've been almost completely unable to stop their attacks, to the point that you begged Japan to share its GAUS technology with you. UK instead has been able to repel three different assaults with its sole force.

We simply decided that our land was more important of someone else's, and that no one had the right to force us to use our soldiers to defend other nations besides our own.»

«So you decided to protect yourselves at the cost of leaving EU, made also by nations completely unable to protect themselves against such menace, alone in face an alien invasion. Someone could call it selfishness.»

«I call it survival. We're more than ready to help you, but we'll do only if we'll be able to assure UK's complete protection at the same time.»

«Maybe you're right.»

At that moment, the changing room's door opened, and Alyx saw Klein coming out now enclosed inside the Lamba Suit, almost unrecognizable in his new appearance.

«But we share risks and victories trying to find new answers in common, taking advantage from as much resources as possible in materials and opinions. Each of us gives the best as it can in strong convintion that only in unity there's the sole hope for salvation. This is the power of our Union. This is the route we chose to follow.»

Alyx remained speechless for a moment, but a beep from her computer lead her to divert her attention once again.

«We'll speak about politics and international relations in a better moment. For now, let's get out of here. Do you have an electronic device with you?»

Then, smiling in complicity, he launched his iPhone to her. Alyx then removed the memory card, putting it inside a second box together with her own, artificially charging them with the magnetic impulse she was able to extract from the Efy Dolgh's device.

«Here.» she said giving the card back to Klein. «Put it on yourself. This should be enough to trick them.»

Klein obeyed, and before leave the room Alyx gave him even her rifle.

«That toy rifle will not help you so much.» she said pointing the MP5. «Special Benelli M4 shotgun equipped with anti-cactus ammunitions created by the bodies of the fallen enemy robots. In this way, there will be no protective field able to stop your bullets from reach their target.»

«It's a pretty powerful weapon in the hands of such a tiny little girl.»

«Say it again, and your jewels down there will find out how tiny and little I really am.»

Klein smiled, then he took the rifle, filling all of his tactical pockets with as much bullets as possible.

«Are you sure these magnetic things will work for sure?»

«I suppose we'll find it out very soon. In any case, I don't want to stay in this goddam facility one minute longer.»

«You're right. Let's get out of here.»

* * *

The two then left the room, and Klein found out very soon that maybe the young female professor was not only chitchat after all.

In fact, when they finally met a group of cactus units and possessed humans, both of them let them pass with no problems, as if they were possessed too.

«Ok, I admit it» Klein said. «You're a smart girl.»

«Are you surprised?»

«So-so.»

«Let's go, the tunnel's entrance is not far from here.»

And as Alyx said, soon she and Klein finally reached the indicated exit, hermetically closed by a massive, enormous electric door.

«There we are.» Alyx said, and once again she simply needed to use her ID card on the reader, and the door immediately opened in front of them revealing a long, endless tunnel.

«It would be better to close him. If they find it, it could be a problem.»

«Don't worry, sweaty. I'll block it when we'll have reached the other side.»

«And don't call me sweetie. You'll make me remember someone to whom I don't like to think.»

In truth for all that time Klein had voluntarily tried to not think to Rita to avoid further sufferings and worries.

«I hope she's safe.» he silently murmured.

Klein and Alyx then begun to walk along the tunnel, finding themselves very soon inside of a giant glass tunnel which allowed them to see the lake all around them.

«Quite scenic…» Klein commented

«It was an idea of the builders. They wanted to give to the tourists a direct vision over the dam and the lake. I think they were even planning to fill the lake with fishes.»

«What a marvelous military station.» sarcastically replied the Captain

«This was thought to be a civil plant originally. It's been converted into a military one only when the hinge stone has been discovered. Don't worry. This is reinforced glass, so there's no risk that the battle damaged it.»

However, both of them at a certain point discovered one more thing, a decisively less joyful one: the lake's water was not only all around them, but even in the ground under their feet.

«And… this?»

The explanation arrived when they found out a giant enemy unit collapsed against the tube not far from there, which had cracked part of the glass allowing to a bit of water to enter the tunnel.

«It seems that we've been able to destroy just one of them at least.» Alyx said.

«I don't see damages or traces of the pilot. Maybe it simply fell into the lake during the battle.»

At a first glance it seemed that the glass was still largely intact, but suddenly the fissures begun to enlarge under the eyes of the astonished and worried young boys.

«Are you really sure that it's infrangible glass?» said a speechless Klein. «Because those one decisively seem very big fissures to me.»

Then, at the end, a piece of glass as big as a punch broke, and the water began to enter the tunnel while the fissures became bigger and bigger.

«Holy shit… run!»

The two guys were barely able to start running toward the direction they came before the glasses finally collapsed, and a giant, menacing wave begun to advance in every direction.

Klein and Alyx kept running as fast as they could, but the wave was more and more close to them, and they soon found themselves to run with the wave literally above them.

Plus this, when they finally managed to see the tunnel's entrance, they saw it begin to slowly close itself, threatening to leave them trapped inside.

«The watertight closure is entering in action!» Alyx shouted. «Run faster!»

At the end the wave overthrew them, and they were forced to literally swim to finally reach the door, which completely closed less than a second after they managed to pass through it, blocking the water but cutting away at the same time their escape route.

«Are you all right?» asked Klein, the first one to recover from both the run and the swim.

«More or less.» she breathlessly answered

They then both looked in discomfort toward the closed door.

«What now?» they said together.


End file.
